King’s first leadership role in the civil rights movement was as an executive in the National Association for the Advancement of colored people where he lead and organized the year long Montgomery Bus Boycott. Later the Boycott would lead to the U.S Supreme Court to rule that segregated buses were unconstitutional. He also became President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The group was different because they only used nonviolent strategies to get their point across and expose the evils of oppression. Martin Luther King spoke over 2,500 times and led marches and nonviolent demonstrations for black people to vote, desegregation, labor and other basic civil rights for all.
Victoria Lopez English 1101 December 10, 2012 Rhetorical Analysis Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”, published in 1964 in his own book Why We Can’t Wait, addresses and explains his current situation to the clergymen of Alabama. On April 12, 1963 Dr. King was arrested in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama for contempt of court and parading without a permit during a protest. His purpose of the letter is to inform the clergymen of his views and the reasons for his “direct action” on the issue of desegregation. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end segregation laws.
In Birmingham, Alabama, desegregation was being violently resisted by the white population. The city was dubbed ‘Bombingham’, due to the frequency of attacks on black homes and activists. Imprisoned and held in solitary confinement after defying an injunction against the protests, Martin Luther King wrote his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. In response to criticism from local white clergymen, he set out his reasons for action in Birmingham and elsewhere. After his
Firstly, Martin Luther King’s campaigns for desegregation were mainly a success. The Montgomery bus boycott was King’s first major success; he became the leader of the civil rights movement after giving a spell bounding speech in a church where the boycott meeting was held. The end result of the 382 day campaign was the bus company and the city authorities finally accepting a Supreme Court decision (Browder v Gayle) that bus segregation was unconstitutional. As well as this, the lunch counter sit-ins in 1960 led to the desegregation of public facilities in cities all over the South. Furthermore success of the Birmingham campaign in 1961 and the March on Washington in 1963 (including the significant “I have a dream” speech) led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964 and perhaps marked the high point of King’s career.
To show this I will discuss: force, confidentiality, safety, and a message. According to Simon, in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, the Civil Rights Movement continued to feel suppressive force from the government. Throughout that past year, Civil Rights Activists participated in “Project C”, and “March on Washington”, lead by Martin Luther King Jr. Simon States “Project C” was commonly known for the force the police inflicted on demonstrators of the African American community. Simon also states, that dogs, fire hoses, and jail time were used to disperse the peaceful demonstrators. Randall conveys the mother feelings about the streets of Birmingham to her daughter, in lines six through nine.
Jacob Martin Mrs. Nguyen English 101 March 5, 2013 Rhetorical Examination of “The Letter from Birmingham Jail” The employment of rhetorical strategies is imperative to effective persuasion. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes these methods throughout his dialogue. In April 1963, “The Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written while incarcerated for leading a nonviolent protest against Jim Crow laws. The purpose of the document was to be a reaction to a statement eight white clergymen issued disparaging King’s approach to protesting discrimination. The methods of logos, ethos, and pathos are used to convince his audience.
Sitanshu Biswas AP English Barack Obama’s Selma Speech On the 50th anniversary of the famous march from Selma, President Barack Obama gave, what is now regarded as, one of his best speeches. His speech was a dedication to the hardships that this country has overcome over the time period. Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers marched from Selma to Montgomery as a form of protest and as a symbol of the unity he wanted to see exemplified in the country. This was an integral moment in the long and hard fought battle for civil rights. President Obama was tasked with giving a speech that not only openly acknowledged and recognized what happened in Selma but also shed light on how far the nation has come since then.
The 1960’s were noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs and fire hoses were turned against protestors, many of whom were in their early teens or younger (Civil Rights March on Washington). During these protests, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested. (O'Hagan, Sean). It was at this time where he wrote his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which suggested civil disobedience against unjust laws.
Letter From a Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an open letter to his fellow clergymen in April, 1963 after bring arrested for protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. His letter was in response to statements the clergymen had made condemning and criticizing King for his “unwise and untimely”protests (King 1). In “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King used the methods of ethos, pathos, and logos not only to justify the actions that led to his arrest, but also to admonish those who sympathized with his plight, yet did little to change the inequality that existed. King recognized that before he could persuade his audience to understand his point of view, he needed to gain their trust. His ethical appeal, or ethos, is evident when he writes: “I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth” (1).
In order to understand the recent trends in voter identification laws, we must first look back at the civil rights movement in the South. This movement was determined to secure equal rights for African Americans, including the right to vote. In 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement, black civil rights marchers started a 50-mile walk to Montgomery, Alabama to demand equal rights in voting, when white police in Selma used violence to disperse them. “What happened that day in Selma shocked the nation, and led President Johnson to call for immediate passage of a strong federal voting rights law,” (U.S. Department of Justice 2013). This led Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which “protects every American against racial discrimination in voting.